I knew as soon as I saw the first trailer for Planet Coaster that this was a game for me. Ever since Santa Clause bought me Theme Park for my Sega Mega Drive back in 1994, making theme parks is something I have loved. Many games have tried to emulate what Theme Park did, but I feel that Planet Coaster could be the best of all time in this genre!

Starting Out Small

When you start your game of Planet Coaster the goal is for you to create the most amazing theme park that the world has ever seen. Before this, though you have to start out small. You start off with a little bit of land and some basic resources to build your park, but as the money starts coming in you can expand.

Watch The Bank Balance

While building a theme park is a lot of fun a huge part of Planet Coaster is making sure your money is right. You will have to take out some loans in order to get your park off the ground. You need to pay for employees so you always have money going out. You need to make sure that the park has more money coming in than going out.
You may think that overcharging for everything is the way to go and it may work for a short while. Eventually, though people will get sick of being ripped off and stop coming to your park. I know the idea of managing money sounds really hard and boring. Planet Coaster though keeps things nice and simple and it never actually feels like a chore.

This Is Your Park!

It is pretty insane how much control you have over your park in Planet Coaster. It lets you get in there and change lots of little things. For example, you can change the location of rides and attractions and you can even change the color of your stores if you feel like rebranding. You can even get super nerdy and make your footpaths be a feature. There is so much at your fingertips that the park you build will probably be drastically different to the park one of your buddies builds.

Why Is It Called Planet Coaster?

Well, the reason for this is that you have a truly epic roller coaster creation tool in this game. In the early part of your theme park career, I would advise just using the pre-built roller coasters. Once you are more comfortable though, you can then get in deep and make some pretty amazing roller coasters.
You can make it so they are super-fast, have a ton of loops and in general make it the most insane roller coaster in the world! While you are free to do what you want, you have to take your customers into consideration. If the roller coaster is more scary than fun and has them throwing up their burger then they will not be happy. Trying to balance out a roller coaster being fun and also something people will enjoy is a delicate, but fun thing to do.

Different Ways To Play

While Planet Coaster has a Challenge Mode that is very like the old Theme Park game. It also has a couple of other game modes for you to play. Career Mode is quite a neat idea in that it is not just about building your park. You will also have to do certain challenges along the way. There is also a really fun Sandbox mode where you are free to just go crazy and make the park of your dreams without any kind of limitations.

Final Thoughts On Planet Coaster

I would legit be embarrassed to tell you the number of hours that I have sunk into Planet Coaster. This for me is the best of the best when it comes to games that let you make a theme park. There is so much that you can do here, but thankfully the UI is great and everything is very easy to learn to do. Planet Coaster is a game that I really cannot recommend highly enough!